Objectives: Persuade listeners to adopt your viewpoint or ideas or to take some action; Appeal to the audience’s interests; Use logic and emotion to support your position; avoid using notes.
Time: Five to seven minutes
Presenter: Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863
Today is the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. This is considered one of the greatest speeches ever written. A little historical perspective.
It could be argued
Abraham Lincoln was the most hated President in United States history during the
Spring of 1863. The people of southern
states (the Confederacy, the gray ) despised him. Many people of the northern
states (the Union, the blue) hated him for the horrendous casualties and lack
of Union military victories in the first two
years of the American Civil War.
The war began in April 1861 and by 1863, people of the North
began to question if the war being fought to preserve the Union and abolish
slavery was worth their human cost and suffering. More Americans soldiers were killed in the
American Civil War than almost all the combined wars ever fought by the United
States. It was a bloodbath. Most of those who were wounded usually endured
amputation of limbs. For example, after the war in 1866, half of the state
budget of Mississippi was to provide artificial prosthetic limbs for veterans.
General Robert E. Lee of the South continually “bitch
slapped” the armies of the North. In the summer of 1863 he invaded the North in
hope of drawing out the Union armies where he could once and for all destroy
them. The South was so confident of
victory, Robert E. Lee carried with him a letter for the terms of
peace to be delivered to President Lincoln once Lee captured Washington, D.C.
In July 1863, the Northern and Southern armies engaged for
three days in the greatest battle ever fought in the Western Hemisphere at a
sleepy little farm town in Pennsylvania called Gettysburg.
On the third day of the battle, General Lee threw the dice when
he ordered the Army of Northern Virginia to attack the center Union line across
a mile of open fields which became known as “Pickett’s Charge.” The Confederates were slaughtered. It was the first significant victory for the
North that marked the beginning of the end of the Confederacy.
On November 19, 1863, President Lincoln travelled to
Gettysburg to dedicate a military cemetery for the Union soldiers killed in the
battle. Lincoln was still dealing with
draft riots, men angry at being called to serve in the army, throughout the
North. He wanted to persuade the people
of the North not to despair and to continue fighting for just causes: Freedom
and the American Ideal.
Lincoln wrote a speech he thought few would remember but
wanted the Northern people to always to honor the men who gave their lives at
Gettysburg. The Gettysburg Address is
considered one of the most eloquent speeches in history.
Lincoln spoke for about two minutes and would not qualify
for a Toastmaster International Speech of five to seven minutes. His speech teaches us the quality of a speech is far more important
than its length.
Below is a link to a excellent YouTube video of Gettysburg Address narrated by the actor Jeff Daniels that runs for about two and a half minutes. He speaks very slowly and clearly using pauses to emphasize the ideas of the speech. Note the subtle vocal variety in the speech.
The Gettysburg Address
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Below is bonus video link for the historically deranged members
of the club (i.e. Phil S, Heleane S, Andy P, et al) of Pickett's Charge which is
almost thirty minutes from the movie of Gettysburg. My sons and I walked across the same fields
at Gettysburg to the point where General Armistead was killed at the Union
Wall. Warning: graphic violence.
Posted by Andy Paultanis
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